Police minister Bheki Cele has vowed the police will solve the murder of former Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa “before Christmas” this year.

“I’m putting my head on the block on this. I still maintain that [the] Senzo Meyiwa matter is going to be resolved in the not very distant future … Definitely it will be before Christmas … Even before Easter that matter will have to be resolved,” Cele said in a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday evening on eNCA’s Crimewatch.

Meyiwa was murdered in an alleged botched robbery in October 2014 at the family home of his girlfriend Kelly Khumalo.

Cele believes the solution to solving crime in SA is to stop crime in Gauteng. “If you want to fix the crime situation in South Africa, you have to fix Gauteng,” he said.

Cele promised that a new Gauteng police commissioner would be appointed soon, following Lieutenant-General Deliwe de Lange's retirement in October last year.

Talking about confidence in the police, Cele said South Africans should not become despondent if they phone 10111 and the police does not help them.

“We are going to produce a booklet where every station commander, from the minister to the national commissioner, his or her number is going to be in that book - and then we distribute those numbers to the community.”

When asked if the police might call in the military’s help to fight crime, Cele was clear: “Absolutely no ... There is not a single soldier that has been taught how to police. All soldiers are taught how to kill. All soldiers are never given rubber bullets, so you’d be causing a lot of problems.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the police’s anti-gang unit in Hanover Park, Cape Town on November 2 last year. Cele said they will enlarge this unit nationwide, starting with Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg's Westbury and Eldorado Park.